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Short Film “The Trail’s End” Entices with Bonnie-and-Clyde Android Couple

David J. Hill
Aug 09, 2014

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For nearly a century, filmmakers have explored the convergence of humans and machines in the form of androids. Whether as soulless servants or heartless killbots , movies often depict a future full of androids wrought with perilous pathways that will require all human ingenuity to avoid. In these visions of the future, the technology and programming that makes androids possible is often presupposed as the focus shifts simply to the consequences of their existence, like watching a Rube Goldberg device in action without wondering what was trying to be accomplished in the first place.

In "The Trail's End", a short film by David Rosenbaum, the attention shifts to a moment when androids are faced with a decision to break from their programming or face termination. As a kind of bot prologue to "Bonnie and Clyde,"  the story highlights a moment on the path to self discovery involving irreversible decision, something that is altogether human. It's an intriguing reimagining of a familiar tale of moral compromise -- here's hoping that this short gets developed into a feature length film.

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David started writing for Singularity Hub in 2011 and served as editor-in-chief of the site from 2014 to 2017 and SU vice president of faculty, content, and curriculum from 2017 to 2019. His interests cover digital education, publishing, and media, but he'll always be a chemist at heart.

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